Exodus 32:2-4
"And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt."
As we saw in the previous post, the people lost patience with Moses (and with God) and confronted Aaron about making them gods. He acquiesced. However, God gave Moses instructions for taking a free-will offering to be used in making a holy place for God (Exodus 25:1-7). Here Aaron received a collection, an offering of gold to make an idol.
All the people broke off the golden earrings and turned them over to Aaron. Suddenly there was a gold rush! It was more important to have something to look at (ie, a golden idol) than Someone to look to.
Aaron fashioned the gold with an engraving tool. It was all manual labor; that is, all hands and no heart. I'm talking about how this wasn't the Spirit-inspired craftsmanship of Bezaleel and Aholiab. It was the flesh-inspired work of Aaron. He thought it out, melted the gold, molded it, and fashioned it carefully with an engraving tool.
Upon completing his community project, he said, "This is your god". Again, notice that Aaron did not anoint this thing as their god. He simply went along with the people as they proclaimed it as their god. Also, take note that he deflected the idol worship on the people as if he was washing his hand of the entire spectacle. Pontius Pilate attempted to do the same thing, but history has not been kind. It was after all his hands that wrought the idol. Aaron in just as culpable in creating the idol as the people were in demanding one.
True leadership would have cried out, "This is idolatry! We must destroy this golden calf. You people are wrong in calling this creation of man your god!" But Aaron wasn't a true leader. He is an example of the one who leads by following popular opinion. If you put yourself in Aaron's shoes and you were accosted and confronted by hundreds, if not thousands, of men demanding an idol, what would you have done? Consider where you're at right now at work or your sphere of influence: Are you being a light in a dark, wicked world (Matt. 5:16) or a you like Aaron, hiding behind the idolatrous veneer of conformity?
True leadership would have cried out, "This is idolatry! We must destroy this golden calf. You people are wrong in calling this creation of man your god!" But Aaron wasn't a true leader. He is an example of the one who leads by following popular opinion. If you put yourself in Aaron's shoes and you were accosted and confronted by hundreds, if not thousands, of men demanding an idol, what would you have done? Consider where you're at right now at work or your sphere of influence: Are you being a light in a dark, wicked world (Matt. 5:16) or a you like Aaron, hiding behind the idolatrous veneer of conformity?
Leading From Behind
President Barack Obama's infamous saying caught the attention of many here in the U.S. as well as abroad. To be clear, the "Leading from behind" quote was not stated by the president, but did in fact come from a White House official who was quoted in a a "journalistic" piece in "The Consequentialist: How the Arab Spring Remade Obama’s Foreign Policy" by Ryan Lizza. So, even though it was explicity stated, the president sure has practiced this philosophy quite consistently. The only people who "lead" from behind, as far as I can tell, are the carnival workers who follow elephants at a parade, if you catch my drift.
From Syria to Iran and the broader Middle East policy, Mexico, Russia, and China, America has been less assertive in the world. The attitude behind this line of thinking is that the relative power of the U.S. is declining, as rivals like China rise, and that the U.S. is reviled in many parts of the world. Therefore, the logic follows, if the U.S. is weak and hated then we have to lead from behind, taking the back seat to atrocities that are committed around the world (Syria as a case in point). Thus, the U.S. gains power by "acting modestly", by acting powerless. Huh?
From Syria to Iran and the broader Middle East policy, Mexico, Russia, and China, America has been less assertive in the world. The attitude behind this line of thinking is that the relative power of the U.S. is declining, as rivals like China rise, and that the U.S. is reviled in many parts of the world. Therefore, the logic follows, if the U.S. is weak and hated then we have to lead from behind, taking the back seat to atrocities that are committed around the world (Syria as a case in point). Thus, the U.S. gains power by "acting modestly", by acting powerless. Huh?
Truly, the liberal line of thought is corrupt, dishonest, childish and dangerous. Heaven help us if we're going to face another 4 years of this debacle of a presidency.
Put simply, someone who leads from behind is a coward.
The Cult of Personality
As Barack Obama did not become president until January 20 of this year, it seems irrefutable that his cult of personality was bestowed upon him by so-called journalists who in order to help him get elected abdicated their solemn responsibility to report the truth to the American people.
As this typically occurs in a totalitarian nation, that country's ruler, with complete control of the media, is able to mandate what images of him or herself are being disseminated thereby furthering his cult-like status. Think of North Korea's late leader Kim Jong Il.
The Obama team is formulating its campaign strategy convinced that their guy's charisma and delivery combined with a willingness to say anything will result in re-election.
The Obama Team knows it will not be able to honestly campaign on the President's record of accomplishments. Their campaign will be solely based on blaming everything on President Bush and the mantra that things would have been worse if they had not pursued their policy agendas.
The Cult of Personality strategy works something like this:
1. Contrasting Obama against the dull and bland personality of the Republican candidate.
2. In concert with the once-mainstream media and the unions, leveling the well-worn and threadbare accusations of the Republican nominee as being mean-spirited and in league with the "rich" will be on full display. Consider the Bain Capital attacks presently being waged on Romney by the press.
3. Racist accusations being used to create headlines and sidetrack the Republicans whenever the opportunity, real or imagined, presents itself.
The Murder of Naboth
In I Kings 21, Naboth is murdered for his vineyard because he refused to give up his land.
King Ahab wanted the vineyard near his royal house in Jezreel that he might have it as a vegetable garden, and was willing to trade for the land or pay for it. Naboth's response was an emphatic "No." His rejection of the otherwise reasonable offer was rooted in the ancient Israelite idea of the land. They believed that the land was an inheritance from God, parceled out to individual tribes and families according to His will. Therefore land was never really sold, only leased - and that only under the most dire circumstances. You can imagine that the Real Estate offices in ancient Israel didn't do very good business.
See Leviticus 25:15, 25:23, 25:25; Numbers 36:7; Ezekiel 46:18 for further study.
What does Ahab do to this legitimate decline to sell him the property? He pouts before Jezebel.
So Ahab went into his house sullen and displeased And he lay down on his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no food. He seemed to be a spineless, pouting man who reacted this way when he met any kind of adversity or denial of self-fulfillment. He was like a sulking child who could not get his own way. Trust me, I've got eight kids. I know what sulking looks like!
"You now exercise authority over Israel . . . I will give you the vineyard of Naboth" Men, take note. Jezebel's manner of speech revealed who really exercised authority in the palace of Israel (Michelle Obama, are you listening?).
Friends, Jezebel plotted the plan and Ahab executed it. It's a little stretch, but see it this way if you can: President Obama is trying to steal our great Nation right from under our noses. What are you going to do about it? Believe the mainstream media? Or, put your trust back in the only One who is trustworthy: Jesus Christ?
The choice is yours. Make no mistake, though. I'm not referring to the choice of voting between a Muslim or a Mormon. What I'm talking about is humbly & quickly returning to God and begging for mercy on this great land.
America's Prestige Is On the Line
America is weak because we have a weak leader in Obama. But, he's doing it purposely, to transform this Nation from being a Superpower to an Impotent One. America needs to be taken back from the godless Liberals, Progressives, Democrats, Republicans and yes, the carnal-worldly Christians.
A weak leader who depends on God for strength and wisdom is truly a strong leader.
A weak leader who perceives himself as strong, because he sees himself as the answer to the nation's problems is in reality a fool.
Brace yourselves, folks. We're in for a rough landing come November 2012. Stay on your knees and keep looking up. Christ is on the way. God bless you!
Sources: The New Yorker; newsbusters, Washington Free Beacon, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Fox News, Smith's Encyclopedia
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